Ginger's Blog

Texting, is it a formal way of communication?

Hey guys,

When I was in high school, texting in class wasn’t that common. While most of my friends did have a cell phone, we usually left them in our bags, and had fun passing notes to each other in classes.
WhatsApp hadn’t been invented yet, and since our parents paid our phone bill, we needed to make sure that we didn’t exceed our payment plan by sending too many texts.

Today, things have changed. A recent study found that cell phones are now being used by 91% of American adults. Among young adults, between the ages of 18 to 24, it’s even higher, with an astounding 97% penetration rate.
However, across all the age groups, texting is still the most popular smartphone activity people engage in (more than 81%).

Technology has undoubtedly reshaped the way society communicates, namely among the younger generation. If once, people actually wrote complete sentences while texting, nowadays young adults don’t even write complete words. Instead, they use emojis, stickers, LOL Speak and other abbreviations to convey their thoughts.

The problem is that young adults don’t perceive casual written communication (especially digital communication, such as emailing and texting) as formal writing.
For them, it is simply another way to speak to people that is distinctly separate from formal writing.

As a result, some believe that the English language is deteriorating,however, others believe texting has created a new sub-language, “text-talk” that is used for casual written communication.
No one knows the effect and impact “text-talk” will have on formal communication in the future. However, as technology continues to evolve, we believe that the way our society communicates will change as well.
In the meantime, we need to make sure to keep both formal writing and “text-talk” each in its respective environment, thus making us able to comprehend each language in its context.

For our latest Android version, which includes all the emoji, stickers and GIFs you need, go here.